Read Sun and Moon Letters in Arabic

Hello, and thank you for watching VisiHow. Today, we will learn the difference between the sun letters and the moon letters, and what happens when you are making a definite noun using a sun letter. The Arabic alphabet is categorized into two groups of letters called sun letters and moon letters. There are fourteen sun letters in standard Arabic - taa, thaa, daal, thaal, ra, za, siin, shiin, saad, daad, taa, thaa, laam and miim.

When "al" is placed before one of the sun letters, the laam in integrated into the following sun letter

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In other words, it's not pronounced. Instead of being "al shams", this becomes "ashams". With any of the sun letters, this will be the rule for alif, laam preceding a sun letter. The letter laam is not pronounced as "al", but it gets integrated into the rest of the word. Again, instead of "al shams", this is "ashams".

Video: Read Sun and Moon Letters in Arabic

Questions and Answers

Whats the difference between the Sun and Moon letters?

Just trying to figure out the exact difference between the letters. I have tried: Researching online. I think it was caused by: ....my brain...?

To say it plainly, the Arabic language has the definite article "al-". The Sun letters change the "L" sound in this article to the first consonant of the next word. The Moon letters do not change the "L" sound. Basically, the Sun letters indicate that the definite article has apocope. Also, the sun letters are phonetically formed by raising the tip of the tongue towards the hard palate, while the moon letters formed in all of the other possible ways.